Direct Marketing

Smile...

Great viral movie for HIV/Aids charity Body and Soul all about how smiles can be 'caught' easily through touching, kissing or from loo seats, unlike HIV.

Now I read about this video on Brand Republic but had to go out there and search for it on YouTube - it wasn't even on the charity's website. Not using all of the potential distribution channels?

The reason it is here in the direct marketing section is that it is asking the consumer to actually do something specific after watching it, in this case donate money - in the industry called direct response.

Any TV ad with this kind of mechanic is also called a direct response ad.

Let me know what you think of the video, and if you have seen it before (maybe I'm wrong about the distribution). Send it to you mates, see if we can make it into something bigger.

Cheers Steve

PS - Smile.

Consumer Power - Matt Eccles

This site is all about getting as much information and opinions about the marketing industry - where it is now, how it is developing, where it is going. In order to do this as best as possible, I am going to be interviewing key figures in the industry.

This comment is from Matt Eccles, my mentor who is currently on leave after heading up the planning department at WWAV Rapp Collins. Any thoughts on what he is saying I would love to hear them.

So Matt, what trends have you noticed in the industry?

Consumer power is increasing - with ever increasing influence of interactive technologies, consumers are being allowed ever more control over the total purchase cycle for a product.

They can now decide on an exact product, how it looks, how it is produced, when it is delivered etc.

This obviously means that brand owners have fewer controls.

Therefore brands now have to focus on trying to connect to the consumer on a day to day basis and build a strong relationship with them. This is shown by the fact that one to one and relationship marketing sectors are growing while TV and other broadcast channels are declining.

Direct Mail Information

For some information on direct mail, check out the direct mail information service - lots of stats and figures and stuff. Basically just useful info to have if you are thinking of applying to a DM firm.

Apparently, last year a total of £27.1 billion was spent by consumers through direct mail. Now people may bitch about it just being junk mail, but £27 billion is a considerable amount of money.

Cheers

Steve

Texts and the Tube

I posted something about this in the digital section the otehr day, but after a weekend of heavy tube use, I wanted to ask the question again - why o why are there ads in the tube that have SMS response mechanisms?

If the companies expect people to save the number then remember to text it when they get out the station, they must think pretty highly of whatever it is they are promoting.

Relating this back to direct marketing, trying to open a channel of communication with a consumer is all well and good. I'm a big fan of all that relationship marketing stuff. But pushing text response mechanisms in the only place in London you are guaranteed to have no reception is a bit like talking to a prisoner in the middle of a 25 year sentence about where he wants to go on holiday in the summer.

Cheers,

Steve

Pizza Menus

We live in Clapham. The other day we got a pizza menu through the door. Pizza menus normally end up in a draw or in a bin, and they all look fairly similar.

Not this one though - this had a magnet on the back of it so you could stick it onto the fridge!

Now my excitement about this might seem scary and a bit weird, but if you think about it, the magnet is a great idea:

a) it forces you to put it on the fridge, thereby separating it from the draw full of other menus

b) Where do you go when you are hungry? The fridge. By being on the fridge, every time you go there even with the best intentions of cooking, you are confronted with the easy opportunity to get a lovely pizza. 

A really simple idea. And the pizzas taste great. Just writing about it makes me want to order one.

Cheers

Steve

AT & T gets a slating from AdRants

Alright so it happened in the US, but it shows what can happen when your attempts at direct marketing are half arsed.

Basically the PR geniuses at AT&T sent AdRants (which is a blog kinda like Popbitch but for the ad industry) a 'personlised' and 'targeted' email. Unfortunately they had somehow thought AdRants was a sports site so sent them an email trying to get them to write a story about some American Football bloke.

The email was targeted to the wrong people and had completely the wrong message. And more unfortunately this blog has quite a high readership and they don't mince their words:

Well, you cut and paste buffoons, you ask what we think? Well, aside from the fact it took no less that three minutes, 7-8 different screens and innumerable confusing navigational issues just to find this video which carried the educational side text "THIS IS AN INTERACTIVE VIDEO" as if a person couldn't figure that out on their own, you might want to update your press list so you can craft oxymorons like "personalized mass emailings" that carry at least a modicum of intelligence.

Muppets.

Steve

Right message, Right time, Right person

Junk mail does none of those things. Good Direct Marketing does them all.

Here I'll be posting information, interviews, and creative work to give an insight into DM, (as those who like acronyms insist on calling it) and links to places to find out more for yourself.

Links will include the websites of some market leading DM firms.

Cheers

S